This invention relates to use of cellular telephone texting capabilities for alerting emergency services. More particularly, this invention provides a technique for contacting emergency services using SMS communication services. This invention is related to setting up the required protocols.
Having an easy-to-remember, simple and short telephone number such as 911 to report an emergency situation, is a proven idea. It allows anyone in an emergency situation, anywhere to call a commonly known number (911 in the USA) to report the emergency situation without having to find a directory and looking up a local number. According to established procedure, after receiving such a call, the 911 operator asks several questions of the person making the call, and emergency response units are sent to the scene based on phone location and other gathered information to address the emergency. This process requires a verbal dialog between the person making the call and the 911 operator which can last several minutes, during which time precious time may be lost. One of the most difficult questions to answer in that verbal dialog is “Where are you”? In massive disasters such as the Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami disaster of 2011, there can be very large numbers of victims that will inevitably result in very large number of simultaneous 911 calls, and lines can be quickly overloaded. Dealing verbally with such a large number of simultaneous calls is very difficult in the first place. There will be need of very large number of 911 lines and operators to respond to the calls. On top of that most of the callers won't even know where they are in the first place! Coordinating a rescue plan in such a large scale disaster requires some quick evaluation on the distribution of the cases which is very difficult to prepare with the standard 911 reporting procedures!
A smart phone has texting or SMS capabilities and also typically has a GPS feature. This feature can be used to implement a location reporting function. An emergency alert system that is a text-based emergency reporting system is not known to exist today.
A smart phone equipped with location information capability, such as GPS capability, can share its current location coordinates as part of a “Here I am” mode. This option is a quick way of finding a lost person, a misplaced phone or simply for curiosity purposes. Sending the GPS coordinates with a touch of a button and displaying it on the receiving party's smart phone display or other device with messaging and display capability is an easy alternative to very imprecise verbal means of explaining a present location!
Currently there is no known operational telephone number where an “Emergency SMS” message can be sent. With increasing large natural disaster occurrences the need is increasing and since the technology to do it is available it is wise to provide such a number. It is almost certain in the near future such a service will be available besides the time-consuming 911 type emergency reporting numbers.